Home of the housing bust

[n2doc]

By Jenifer B. McKim
Globe Staff / February 15, 2012

ATHOL - How far have home values dropped in this Central Massachusetts town? The answer sounds like the punch line to a joke, but no one is laughing: They’ve eroded so much that you can buy a house for about the cost of a Toyota Camry.

“If [prices] go much lower, they will be giving them away,’’ said Matt Tarlin, an investor from Needham who has bought three homes in Athol and nearby Orange, where values are similarly depressed, and houses sell for as low as $20,000.

Athol’s real estate decline has been fueled by a glut of foreclosed properties and high unemployment. The median price of a single-family home in Athol has fallen by more than 50 percent since Massachusetts values peaked in 2005, to just above $78,000 - the lowest in the state.

That compares with about a 19 percent decline in values statewide during the same period and a median price of $286,000, according to Warren Group, a real estate tracking firm.

more
http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2012/02/15/in_central_massachusetts_bargain_hunters_can_find_homes_for_the_cost_of_a_camry/?p1=News_links

[rfranklin]

1. There is a good reason why prices are this low...perhaps because there are no jobs here?

This fro the linked article:

The median household income is $43,071, compared with a $64,509 state median, and the December unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, more than a third higher than the 6.5 percent statewide figure, according to state and federal data.